


The Golden State

by justyrae



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-18
Updated: 2014-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 15:45:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1653944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justyrae/pseuds/justyrae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zayn and Niall go for a drive down the California coast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Golden State

**Author's Note:**

> let's all live in my fantasy world where there's a SF date on the WWA tour and Zayn actually has a license, yeah?
> 
> title from the City & Colour song of the same name

"Niall."

Keeping his eyes firmly shut, he made a soft noise of indignation and tried to pull the covers up over his head. He whined when they wouldn't move, and he knew that whoever was trying to wake him up must be pinning them down.

" _Niall_."

He groaned louder this time, finally recognizing the voice through his haze of sleepiness. He slowly rolled onto his back and opened his eyes, reaching up to rub the sleep out of his eyes as he focused on the figure beside him.

"What fucking time is it?" he grumbled.

"About five," Zayn answered with a light chuckle.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" Niall said with another groan, letting his head fall back onto his pillow. "You love sleep. I love sleep. Let's all sleep."

He tried again to pull his covers up, but Zayn tugged them down even further and Niall cried out.

"Seriously, mate, what the-"

"Just get up, yeah?" Zayn bounced – literally _bounced_ – off of the bed and ran over to Niall's suitcase, immediately pulling out random bits of clothing and tossing them at Niall.

"Why?" Niall whined, reluctantly sitting up and rubbing at his eyes again. "We finally have a day off and you're _not_ spending it sleeping?" He sighed. "Who are you and what've you done with Zayn Malik?"

Zayn chuckled, turning his head to look at Niall with a grin.

"Get dressed and meet me in the lobby in fifteen."

Niall managed to drag himself out of bed and shuffle into a pair of jeans and a new shirt, grumbling to himself as he wandered around his hotel room looking for his wallet. After searching through several pairs of jeans – half of which he was fairly certain didn't actually belong to him – he located it with a soft cry of joy. Luckily, his phone was waiting on the bedside table along with the San Francisco Giants snapback he'd bought the day before.

By the time he'd made it down to the lobby, far more than fifteen minutes had passed since Zayn left his hotel room. The lobby was deserted (for once, Niall noted), and he was about to turn around and take the elevator back upstairs when he heard his name being called.

Zayn was standing on the threshold of the entryway, and Niall slowly walked up to him despite Zayn almost shouting at him to hurry up.

"What're we even doing?" he asked, to which Zayn replied only with a grin. He held up a set of keys, jingling them in his hand before grabbing Niall's arm and leading him into the hotel's parking lot.

Niall blinked several times when Zayn came to a stop in front of a silver Porsche Boxter GTS, trying to wrap his head around the fact that Zayn woke him up at five in the morning to show him a bloody _car_.

"Zayn, what-"

"Get in." Zayn walked around to the driver side door, sliding into the seat while Niall stood frozen in place.

"Wait, can you even drive this?" Niall asked, hesitating to put his hand on the door handle.

"Just get in, alright?" Niall let out a sigh, glancing over his shoulder at the entrance to the hotel before he made up his mind.

"Fuck it," he muttered as he slid into the passenger seat. "If this gets us in trouble, I'm blaming you."

Zayn rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

Niall had to admit that out of all the ideas Zayn had had over the last few years – and there had been far more than Niall could possibly remember – this was definitely the best one. Before he knew it, they had left the city limits of San Francisco and were cruising down Highway 1 watching as the sun rose before them.

Zayn kept quiet as he drove, keeping the speed low around the curves, but every time Niall glanced in his direction he had a soft smile on his face.

He wanted to ask why Zayn had woken him up so early; why Zayn had been awake at that hour in the first place, but a part of him didn't want to know if it was going to make that smile disappear. A small warmth spread from his heart at the thought that if something had happened, that Niall was the first person Zayn would've thought to go to.

"Where're we going?" he asked over the din of the wind rushing by, figuring that question had a smaller chance of getting a negative reaction.

"Dunno," Zayn replied, turning his head to smile at Niall before putting his eyes back on the road. Niall chuckled, shaking his head as he adjusted the brim of his snapback before quickly putting his hand on top of it to keep it from blowing away.

As they kept driving, Niall busied himself with playing with the radio. He scanned through the stations, skipping over all of the morning talk shows that he had absolutely no desire to listen to. He didn't want inane chatter, he wanted music.

When he finally found a station that claimed to play "the hits of the 50s and 60s" before blending into The Beach Boys, he pumped his fist into the air and made a soft cry of victory. Zayn laughed as he stuck out his fist for Niall to bump, the gesture making both of them smile.

Niall managed to persuade Zayn to stop at a Starbucks along the highway when the grumbling of his stomach became too much to ignore. Zayn seemed hesitant at first, and Niall couldn't really blame him since it hadn't been the _best_ idea in the first place to sneak out without any security to go for a joyride along Highway 1. But they managed to find one with a drive-thru and that was enough to ease Zayn's anxieties.

"So are you going to tell me why we're doing this?" Niall asked once they'd started driving again, watching as Zayn chewed on the tip of the straw to his iced coffee.

"Do we need a reason?"

Niall shrugged. "Is there one?"

Zayn let out a soft breath, mimicking Niall as he shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe."

"It's alright if you don't want to talk, mate." Niall settled back in his seat, pressing his head back against the headrest to keep his hat on. "Was just curious."

Despite finishing his large drink filled to the brim with caffeine, Niall managed to fall asleep with his head resting against the door. He awoke only when the car came to a stop, and for the second time that day he rubbed his eyes until Zayn came back into focus.

"Why're we stopped?" he asked, clearing his throat halfway through to rid himself of a sleep-thick voice.

"Look," Zayn replied as he gestured to the scene before them. Niall turned his head and the view took his breath away.

Zayn chuckled lightly as he unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed out of the car, Niall scrambling to do the same as Zayn leaned against the hood. Niall was a bit more hesitant to do so, mainly because he had absolutely no idea who the car actually belonged to – and the last thing he wanted to do was damage it on the off chance that Zayn hadn't acquired it legally.

"It's fine, Niall." Zayn patted the space next to him. "You're not Louis, your arse won't crush it."

"I'm telling him you said that." Niall laughed as he leaned back against the hood and relaxed. "S'gorgeous out here."

"Yeah," Zayn agreed softly.

They remained silent for a while, the only noise coming from the passing cars on the road behind them as they stared out across the Pacific Ocean before them. Niall peered down over the edge of the cliff that was just a few feet ahead, shuddering as he tried not to think about the drop.

"Bit terrifying, innit?" he said with a half-chuckle as he turned to Zayn, only to find that the smile he'd gotten used to wasn't there anymore.

"We broke up," he admitted softly. Niall bit his lip, tapping his fingers together as he fought to find the right words in his mind before speaking them out loud.

"When?"

Zayn let out a heavy sigh as he checked his watch. "'Bout five hours ago."

"Shit," Niall cursed softly. "M'sorry."

Zayn shrugged and shook his head. "For the best. Or something."

"Is that what she said?" Niall asked hesitantly, frowning when Zayn shrugged his shoulders again.

Silence fell again as Zayn rubbed his shoes against the gravel, staring down at his feet instead of looking at Niall. It was uncomfortable, but not as bad as Niall would've expected. Still, he couldn't help but think that he was possibly the worst person to come to in this sort of situation.

Niall was surprised that Zayn hadn't gone to Liam, given the mess he'd found himself in months before with his break-up with Sophia. Surely Liam would have advice, or at least know the right thing to say. Niall kept wracking his brain, but honestly didn't know what he could possibly say that would make Zayn feel better.

"Is that why you…?" Niall gestured to the car and then out across the ocean, and Zayn let out a soft chuckle.

"Yeah," he replied. "Just wanted to get away, I guess."

"And wake me up at five in the bleedin' morning."

"Well, couldn't do it alone, could I?" Zayn said as he turned to look at Niall, who was pleased to see the smile had returned.

"No," Niall replied with a similar smile. "Absolutely not."

He gently nudged Zayn's elbow with his own, chuckling softly when Zayn nudged his right back. One nudge led to another, and soon Zayn had managed to push Niall right off the hood and onto his back in the gravel.

"Jesus!" he croaked out as he tried to catch his breath, having not expected to get the wind knocked out of him.

"Sorry," Zayn said in-between chuckles as he stood over Niall and held out his hand, not looking nearly sorry enough. Niall rolled his eyes but accepted the help back to his feet, pulling Zayn into a hug once he was standing.

"M'here for you," he mumbled into Zayn's shoulder as Zayn wrapped his arms around him tightly.

"Thanks," he whispered back.

A few minutes passed before they let go of each other, and Niall let out a laugh.

"Did you, uh, tell anyone we were leaving?"

Zayn clicked his tongue and avoided Niall's eyes. "Nope."

"Me neither." Niall laughed again. "Whoops."

The two of them laughed, and Niall's hand slowly found its way into Zayn's. He squeezed it tightly, hoping that it told him just how much it meant to Niall that he was the one that Zayn had picked that morning. Niall wished that he could make himself say the words, but with the way that Zayn gripped his hand just as tightly he couldn't help but feel like he understood.

Later that afternoon, after they'd driven back to the city and returned the car (legally, as Niall found out that Zayn had managed to get it on loan from a dealership down the street), the pair of them were sitting through another lecture on how they were absolutely _not_ allowed to disappear without telling anyone where they were going. Niall hated these sorts of lectures, he hated getting yelled at in general, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

Zayn's hand had found his under the table, their fingers interlocked tightly as they both endured Paul's yelling. He squeezed it tightly, making Niall relax and tune out the sound of Paul's voice.

He thought of the ocean in the early morning sun; he thought of driving down the highway listening to the Beach Boys. Most of all, he thought of Zayn, and being the first person that Zayn thought of when he needed someone.

 _I'm here for you_ , he thought as he squeezed Zayn's hand in return. _Always_.

**Author's Note:**

> [my tumblr](http://imlouisaf.tumblr.com)


End file.
